Mounting a halfhearted defense of the minivan’s virtues but making no headway, I’ll finally suggest that the van-averse couple try out General Motors’ solid three-row crossovers, including the Buick Enclave and GMC Acadia, or the equally capable Ford Flex.

Gauging their reaction to the Flex is a snap: people either love the Ford’s bold, boxy visage or they think it looks like a Mini Cooper blown up to the size of a Macy’s parade float. If said shoppers are on board with the styling, my conscience then dictates a caveat: “The engine,” I’ll say, referring to the Flex’s 262-horsepower 3.5-liter V-6, “it’s not terrible or anything.”

I hasten to add: “But it’s just, well, O.K.”

That disclaimer is especially important, I feel, for people who will often fill all six or seven of the Flex’s seats, or use it to tow a boat or trailer. That’s when the Ford, which weighs roughly 4,500 pounds in its basic form and without people and their gear aboard, may start panting on uphill stretches.

But after driving the Flex with the blissfully turbocharged, 355-horsepower EcoBoost V-6 — a new option for 2010 — the engine caveat has turned into a commendation. This engine, with a fat 350 pound-feet of torque, is the most powerful V-6 in any family hauler you can buy, whether crossover, S.U.V. or minivan. To top its power, and then barely, you’ll need the thirstier V-8s found in luxury S.U.V.’s like a Mercedes GL-Class or the big Range Rover.

The twin-turbo V-6 also makes the Flex my favorite Minivan Replacement Vehicle. In addition to its distinctive style and versatile accommodations, this Flex is suddenly far more engaging to drive, perfect for parents who equate minivans with diaper pails on wheels.

Previous attempts to design vehicles that work like a minivan without looking like one — Mercedes R-Class and the defunct Chrysler Pacifica, we’re talking to you — have typically gone down as oddball failures. But with nearly 40,000 sales in 2009, about 1,000 more than Ford’s moribund Explorer, the Flex has been a modest success.

Like its luxury cousin, the Lincoln MKT, the Flex is built on a modified version of the Taurus sedan platform; that architecture will also underpin Ford’s replacement for the Explorer, to be released later this year. The direct-injection EcoBoost engine is also available on the MKT (and MKS sedan), as well as the Taurus SHO.

The EcoBoost’s landslide advantage over the standard V-6 — 93 horsepower and a giddy 102 pound-feet of torque — lets the Flex hustle to 60 m.p.h., according to Edmunds.com, in a brisk 6.1 seconds. That’s more than two seconds faster than with the base engine and quicker than any full-size or midsize all-wheel-drive crossover, save for guzzling V-8 oddities like the 555-horse BMW X5 M. This Ford will even out accelerate the Porsche Cayenne S, a smaller S.U.V. whose 385-horsepower V-8 produces a 6.4 second run to 60 m.p.h.

All-wheel drive, an option on the base Flex but always paired with the EcoBoost engine, raised the price, but it also reined in upsetting torque steer from the front wheels when I mashed the gas. Otherwise, the power lunch is free, at least at the pump: the federal mileage rating of the Flex with EcoBoost, 16 miles per gallon in town and 22 on the highway, matches the nonturbo V-6 with all-wheel drive. Cruising at just over 60 m.p.h, I actually managed 25 highway m.p.g.

Ford’s engineers did not simply bolt the turbo V-6 into the Flex and call it a day. Electronic power steering, more pleasingly weighted than the base model’s hydraulic steering, is also part of the EcoBoost package. The well-matched 6-speed automatic transmission adds a manual-shift function, though that function is hobbled by awkward steering-wheel shift buttons.

The body is lowered nearly a half-inch over 20-inch wheels, dual exhausts jut from the rear, and the suspension gets firmer springs and specially calibrated shock absorbers.

“If we just dropped the engine in, the Flex would have gone fast, but the chassis would feel out of control,” said Louis Jamail, Flex’s chassis engineer. “We wanted to develop the chassis around the engine to make everything harmonious.”

The Flex does sing a new tune of confidence and command. Whether on sweeping curves of the Interstate or two-lane country roads , the low-riding Flex feels more connected and carlike than either the Honda Odyssey, long the standard for minivan handling, or the G.M. crossovers.

A drive from New York to Rhode Island on a day with strong crosswinds gave me a chance to experience the Flex’s Drift Pull Compensation feature, which can add resistance to the steering to help keep the vehicle in lane. Any effect was subtle, but it did seem to keep the Flex tracking straight.